Roger Federer had a tougher fight than might have been expected at the US Open on Wednesday before progressing to his 22nd straight Grand Slam semi-final.
The top-ranked Swiss came out with a 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (6) victory over No.12 Robin Soderling of Sweden that extended his streak to 39 straight wins at Flushing Meadow.
“It’s probably one of the greatest records for me personally in my career,” Federer said.
PHOTO: EPA
“It’s a great relief to come through, because Robin started playing better and better as the match went on,” Federer said. “I knew he’d be tough, but the beginning was way too easy. He found his way into the match.”
Federer will play No. 4 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, after the Serb’s 7-6 (2), 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Djokovic moved into the last four at the US Open for the third straight year. In 2007 he reached the final but lost to Federer, then last year he was beaten by the same man in the semi-finals. Now he gets another chance to finally beat his Flushing Meadows nemesis.
In the women’s quarter-finals on Wednesday, the impressive run of 17-year-old American Melanie Oudin came to an end at the hands of Caroline Wozniacki, with the No.9 seed becoming the first Dane to reach a Grand Slam semi-final.
Against Wozniacki — a 19-year-old who has won more matches than anyone on the tour this year — Oudin faced a carbon copy of herself, harrying to get every ball back into play.
While Oudin was able to fight back from deficits to beat the likes of Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova in earlier rounds, Wozniacki was a tougher nut to crack.
“She plays incredible defense,” Oudin said. “Makes me hit a thousand balls and really is a really great player. I mean, I don’t know what else I could have done.”
Danish boxing star Mikkel Kessler suggested Wozniacki use boxing techniques in training routines and the results have been good.
“It’s not only the boxing training,” Wozniacki said. “You do at least 40 minutes on the treadmill and run a lot and strengthen your stomach, back, arms, shoulders — all the things you also need in tennis.”
Wozniacki will face 50th-ranked Yanina Wickmayer in an unexpected semi-final, with the winner going up against either Serena Williams or Kim Clijsters in the final.
In a quarter-finalist containing two unseeded players, Wickmayer, 19, rallied from 4-1 down in the second set to beat Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 7-5, 6-4.
After her mother’s death from cancer when Wickmayer was nine she decided — on her own — that she needed a fresh start: to leave her native Belgium to attend a US tennis academy. She did research on the Internet and informed her father Marc they were moving.
No matter that she had only recently begun playing the sport, or that neither of them spoke English.
Marc Wickmayer said yes.
He closed his pool construction company in Belgium and didn’t work while they lived in Tampa, Florida.
Relatives helped provide financial support as Yanina honed her skills at Saddlebrook tennis academy. He had worked long days when his wife was sick, but she told him before she died that he needed to devote his time to his daughter after she was gone.
“I know what life is, and maybe I’m older in my head than some people think,” Wickmayer said after her victory on Wednesday. “Sometimes it’s not easy for me, because sometimes I wish I could be a girl from 19 and just enjoy, you know. But I guess that’s life.”
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